“Energy policy needs to ensure all Americans have affordable and reliable electricity to meet everyday challenges and to help build a strong foundation of economic success. Regardless of where you stand politically, this plan fails to meet that threshold.”
Mike Duncan, President of the American Colaitiuon for Clean Coal Electricity.
The Clean Power Plan (CPP) was announced by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama administration back in August of 2015 in a document over 1,560 pages long.
In a nutshell, this plan consists of many rules to regulate allowable carbon dioxide emissions by utilities and mandates that by 2030 carbon dioxide emissions be reduced from 2005 levels by 32%. Understand that this in essence directs that carbon dioxide emissions return to 1975 levels, while our population grows by 40 million.
As of August 2015, for at least 30 states, that means they will have to reduce emissions by more than 32%. In fact, 12 of the states will have to cut emissions by 40-48%.
What Does This Mean for the General Population?
It means there are costs involved—big costs.
Currently most states now get 50-96% of their electricity using coal and natural gas generation plants. The Clean Power Plan will force them to convert to more expensive and unreliable wind and solar energy by 2030. Electricity rates for “green energy” are currently 15-17 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) (compare to the coal-reliant average price of 8-9 cents per kWh). These rates could skyrocket to 36-40 cents per kWh—which match rates currently paid for electricity in Denmark and Germany!
The National Economic Research Associates (NERA) consulting group stated last October that the costs to comply with CPP could total $300 billion and will have virtually no effect on climate change.
According to Paul Driessen, Senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, these rules, “will hammer everything we make, grow, ship, eat and do. It will impair our livelihoods, living standards, liberties and life spans.”1
If the move to adopt wind and solar power made economic sense, utilities would do it for that reason with no force or regulation from the government. It doesn’t make economic sense. Thus the government enforces the issue. It behooves us all to look more deeply into this Clean Power Plan and the EPA’s actual motives. There simply is not a lot that makes sense about this and we have to ask ourselves are the costs that will get passed down to the customers worth it? Who actually benefits from this plan?
“Under my plan of Cap and Trade, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” – Barack Obama (2009)
